< Let the Rain Fall | Sol Invictus Logs | Faerie Dust >
Red Lily Messenger Sarifen speaks. "You seem deep in thought, Cerin."
Cerinfernal "Nothing of any consequence." He says, in a lie that a deaf man could hear. He concentrates, and banishes that name. "There are several things I would like to talk to you about, however."
Red Lily Messenger Sarifen nods.
Sarifen As the work goes on in the background to ready Arada for his horrifying induction into Surkha's strange cabal, Sarifen walks to a corner of the room to chat with Cerin.
Cerinfernal "A most impressive collection." He says with a nod. "Who aside from Filial Wisdom and Azure Wind will act as part of the unity?"
Sarifen smiles. "It has been a hard road to establish the details, and... Filial Wisdom was not our first choice. Nonetheless." He looks over the room with something that, in some alien world, must resemble pride. "We have managed to gather all that we need to rebirth Brigid, Camael, and Arexus into this Age."
Cerinfernal Eclipse, Dawn, Twilight Cerin matches the castes mostly by filling in the blanks. "That would be why Kai no longer possesses the Daybreaker, of course." He nods.
Sarifen "Originally we intended to use Rosada, but that... girl had to go and take the shard. But now that we have recovered the blade, it works just as well for Arexus. All the better that he remains conscious within the blade; he can regret his actions all the more deeply now."
Cerinfernal nods, passing no comment on Arexus and his guilt. "That is where 5 of the shards went. The Deathlords have some of course, and yet others are driving the Red Lily's current offensive ... what of the others?"
Sarifen "We have a... variety of projects that will make use of them. Eventually...." he laughs, quietly. "There are remnants of the 'First' Age that may be turned well to our purposes, eventually."
Sarifen looks over at the Dragon-Bloods who stir within the middle of the room, very quickly. "Their long-dead cousins amongst them."
Cerinfernal "I see." He says softly. "I am sure that there are." He is thoughtful for a moment.
Cerinfernal "It is rather obvious to me now that Nyx is the Child Dragon from the story of the three, though I am curious about the other two ... and why it is that they are dragons."
Sarifen looks at Cerin, and a strange expression passes over his face. The question is a little like asking about one's parents' cousin's youthful indiscretions, one might suppose. "Well."
Sarifen "{They}" -- the word Sarifen speaks is not something Cerin can truly even recognize as a word, though the darkened part of his heart knows to whom it refers -- "were not the same, when they came here. When they... made here."
Sarifen "The existence of Osa was gone, sloughed off and remade in the crucible of the tapestry's weave. What tied them together, what made them, was rewrought, made grander, and yet... smaller."
Sarifen "Those three were to the fore of those who came here, and oft others looked to them for guidance. The nature of their relationship is beyond even my ability to comprehend and verbalize, but you know them as Father, Mother, and Son."
Sarifen "When your kind" -- contempt is not truly what is present here, but rather some sort of twisted fascination -- "rose up, they were amongst your fiercest enemies. That is why they were played against one another."
Sarifen waves his hand about. "Now Auna lies dead and rotting within the Labyrinth and Erevel hides from all in exile while your master hangs within the prison."
Cerinfernal "Erevel is the dragon in Grey, the father dragon. Is it normal to feel that one knows him?"
Sarifen looks at Cerin closely once again. "....aaaaaah, yes. You have stared into his face before."
Sarifen And Cerin sees just the shortest of glimpses -- a face, greater than the uttermost limits of his perception, heart-shatteringly beautiful and yet so horrid and foul as to carve like a knife into his very soul... and himself, standing at a precipice and staring into it.
Sarifen There is a scent, like flowers grown in cold, clammy earth... and just the slightest whiff of that scent hangs over Siram.
Cerinfernal "It was he who was below Rintoko then." He says quietly.
Sarifen nods. "He gnaws at the roots of the world, where darkness takes all and Creation gives way to emptiness."
Cerinfernal "That sheds a certain light on things." He says and then changes the subject. "What of the others? When did Atomnos start to work against 'us'?" Something in his voice suggesting that he doesn't consider himself to really be a memember of the 'us' any more, but it makes a good collective verb. "Scattered legends we had hold him as 'our' ally."
Sarifen thinks for a moment. "I have always been... a tinkerer. One who pulls things apart, and puts them back together." Cerin thinks back to his first sight of him, examining that severed head....
Sarifen "But I am not a creator. Not like Atomnos. When I saw what he had wrought in his betrayal of us, I had to know what he had done."
Sarifen "From what I learned from those we had captured, those I... tinkered with, I learned how we might stamp them to our own purpose." He looks at Cerin with a crafter's eye, leaving no ambiguity as to what he refers. "But the secrets of their construction remained mysterious to us."
Sarifen "I sought on my own to divine the spark, the secret he had used, but to no avail, and all our plans fell aside at the lack."
Sarifen "It was only so recently ago. Cytherea had spurned him, in a thousand ways, for the crippled husk that he was... but she more than any grew twisted and mad, imprisoned in my master's flesh."
Sarifen "Finally it became such that even that repugnant act was more desirable than another day in chains." He adopts what he must think is a whisper. "That your master whispered in her ear had no small role, I am sure."
Sarifen "It was long and difficult, but five of her souls journeyed to Atomnos' lair and sought him out. There was... little resistance against giving us what we sought, then." His eyes flash. "And so the dawn of our victory began to creep over the horizon."
alsoquin Sarifen: "It was long and difficult, but five of her souls journeyed to Atomnos' lair and sought him out. There was... little resistance against giving us what we sought, then." His eyes flash. "And so the dawn of our victory began to creep over the horizon."
Kraken "And, of course, the shards you required were simply waiting there to be plucked."
Sarifen "A pleasant artifact of a previous endeavor gone wrong."
Cerinfernal just raises an eyebrow, exceedingly curious.
Sarifen glances over to make sure that Siram is out of earshot. "When last we sought to turn the Seals to our own purposes." He glances at Cerin with a strange faraway look, as if staring through his physical being. "I suppose you were amidst that as well. How the cycle of history winds again to the same place...."
Sarifen is lost in thought for a moment, before nodding. "Please excuse me... I must attend further to these matters now."
Cerinfernal "I am sure we will speak later." He nods to the demon.
Sarifen moves over to examine one of the Dragon-Bloods, leaving Cerin alone for a minute -- before Markuran wanders over to him with an irritated expression.
Cerinfernal "You seem troubled."
Evil Marku "We've been diverted. That idiot made a deal. Kasima just told me."
Cerinfernal "Which particular idiot, and where?"
Evil Marku makes a kind of a grumbly sigh noise. "Qian's going to brief us on it. I'll let him go into it."
Cerinfernal nods. "I suppose we should go and find him then."
Evil Marku nods.
Stryck Wiki